A delicately pretty, spirited brunette, Marlee Matlin lost her hearing at the age of 18 months as a result of the childhood virus roseola but gravitated to acting early despite her disability. Starting at the age of seven, she performed throughout Illinois, Indiana and Nebraska in such plays as "The Wizard of Oz", "Peter Pan" and "Mary Poppins", produced by a theater group associated with the Chicago-Area Center for Deafness. Discovered in a Chicago stage production of Mark Medoff's "Children of a Lesser God" many years later, Matlin made her Oscar-winning debut in the 1986 movie version, playing a proud, angry deaf woman who refuses to learn to speak. Subsequent feature roles have come mostly in leaky boats like Alex Cox's self-indulgent historical drama "Walker" (1987), Richard Shephard's dismal caper comedy "The Linguini Incident" (1991) and Robert Greenwood's Grade-Z thriller "Hear No Evil" (1993), although she did contribute a sensitive portrayal as Eric Roberts' sister in Randal Kleiser's moving, funny "It's My Party" (1996). It has been on television where Matlin has found her niche, beginning with her debut in the 1989 CBS movie "Bridge to Silence". 1991 saw her cast as a hearing-impaired, liberal assistant prosecutor in the NBC-TV series "Reasonable Doubts", for which she earned two Golden Globe nominations (Best Actress in a Drama Series) in a part originally written for a hearing actress. She also portrayed April Hare in episodes of the Disney Channel's "Adventures in Wonderland" (1992) and delivered a 1993 Emmy-nominated guest appearance on "Seinfeld" (as one of Jerry's girlfriends) before joining the cast of the CBS drama series "Picket Fences". Her performance as a reformed thief who became the town's mayor garnered her an additional Emmy nomination. Matlin's other TV work includes her highly-praised turn as a mentally impaired woman fighting sterilization in Lifetime's based-on-fact "Against Her Will: The Carrie Buck Story" (1993) and a starring turn in HBO's "Dead Silence" (1997). An inspiration to all for the way she has overcome her handicap, Matlin devotes considerable time and energy to improving conditions for the hearing impaired.